Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Ed Pollard-2008.

Study for Pierrot the Politician

Artist Thomas Couture (French, 1815-1879)

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1857

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions7 x 9 in. (17.8 x 22.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 13 1/2 x 15 x 2 1/2 in. (34.3 x 38.1 x 6.4 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number95.36.1

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 216

DescriptionThis is a very small oil on canvas painting. It features two men wearing costumes of a Pierrot and a Harlequin for a masked ball, who are talking about politics in the newspaper. The two figures are seated in a room, one in white, the other in bright colors. The one in bright colors wearing the costume of the harlequin, a geometric pattern in brightly colored triangles, stands out against the colorless room and the figure in white opposite him. The harlequin has his back to the viewer. The other figure has short hair and is in the white costume of a Pierrot; his profile is to the viewer, lit cigar in right hand. There are three glass bottles with various liquids on the right side of the canvas.

Label TextThomas Couture French, 1815–1879 Study for Pierrot the Politician, ca. 1857 Oil on canvas Like other academically trained artists, Thomas Couture perfected his compositions in carefully executed preparatory drawings and oil studies like this one. Here, he established in miniature the basic composition, palette, and tonal structure of Pierrot the Politician, on view at right. Museum purchase 95.36.1 ProvenancePrivate collection, Paris; Sotheby's New York, November 1, 1995, sale 19th century European Paintings and Sculpture, no. 74. Exhibition History"Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - February 16, 1997. Published ReferencesBénédicte Ottinger, "Thomas Couture et l'Amérique," _48/14 La revue du Musée d'Orsay_ Vol. 26. (Spring 2008):p. 29.